City Unemployment Rises to 10.6%, State to 9%

January 21, 2010

Well, we got a little break in December, when it dropped to 10 percent, but that’s all done: Now the unemployment rate in New York City is 10.6 percent, according to the state labor department. That’s the worst it’s been in 17 years, and as bad as Oswego’s, the only municipality in the state with double-digit numbers.

New York State’s unemployment is back up, too, from 8.6 percent to 9 percent, where it was in November. 610,000 New York state citizens are collecting unemployment; about half of them have been collecting it for more than six months.

The Bronx is still the city’s unemployment leader at 13.9 percent. Brooklyn’s is 11.2, Queens 9.3, Staten Island 9.1, and Manhattan 9.0.